The present invention relates generally to camera devices and, more particularly, to a camera device having first and second selectable image paths.
Camera phones, which comprise a mobile, hand-held telephone and a digital camera in the same physical package, have recently been introduced to the market. At present, the development of digital camera phones is in its infancy. Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) and other emerging technologies will soon make it possible to send digital images and live video over wireless communication networks. These emerging technologies will spawn a new breed of camera phones that can be used for teleconferencing or for recording video that can be transmitted over the wireless communications network.
When recording video, the user generally likes to see the image being recorded. In modern video cameras, the image seen through the lens of the camera is presented on a liquid crystal display. The display is typically oriented to face the opposite direction of the lens so that the user can use the display as a viewfinder to view the image being recorded. However, when the user is participating in a video conference, a display facing in the same direction as the lens is needed so that the user can see the other parties while transmitting the user's own image. Modern video cameras solve this problem by mounting the display on a swivel so that it can be rotated to face in either direction. While it is technically feasible to make a display for a camera phone that can swivel, that is not a very practical solution for a camera phone. Color displays have numerous connections that would require use of a flexible connector. If a flexible connector is used, the display would need to swivel in one direction to move from position A to position B, and in the opposite direction to move back from position B to position A. Also the design of the flex is difficult to implement and is often unreliable.